Anna Cole is an ARCS Atlanta Scholar Alum and recipient of the Glenn Award at Emory University. She continues to pursue her doctorate in Cancer Biology as a Laney Graduate School Fellow in the Paulos Lab at Emory. Anna was recently featured in Winship Magazine.

The Power of Immune Cell Teamwork

Anna Cole and Winship researcher, Chrystal Paulos, PhD, along with their colleagues have discovered that Th17 cells and B cells can work together to eliminate solid tumors and prevent recurrence, revealing a powerful new approach to cancer immunotherapy. Their findings have been published in Cancer Cell.

Led by Chrystal Paulos, PhD, professor of surgery, director of translational research for cutaneous malignancies and co-leader of Winship’s Cancer Immunology Research Program, the study shows that cancer-targeted Th17 cells, generated in the lab, can eliminate tumors and prevent recurrence, but only when B cells are present to help. Cole led the experiments that uncovered this critical interaction and carried through to completion under Paulos’s mentorship.

“This kind of immune cell teamwork between Th17 cells and B cells could fundamentally change how we design future cancer therapies,” says Paulos.

“We were surprised to find the presence of host B cells, not host T cells, was essential for the long-term success of this therapy,” adds Cole. “It changes how we think about immune cell therapy and opens up new possibilities for combining T cells with strategies that harness the antibody-producing side of the immune system.”

The findings also open new therapeutic possibilities for people with weakened B cell function such as those undergoing chemotherapy or living with immune deficiencies. Ongoing research is focused on identifying the specific cancer targets that trigger this two-cell immune response, paving the way for more personalized and long-lasting cancer immunotherapies.

Read the full article from Winship Magazine here.